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Comments
People have been known to do that. But I'll make some other more helpful suggestions.
I'd reset the ECU, often that'll clear it up. Disconnect the negative battery terminal, it's the black one (red = positive). Let it sit for about 20-30 minutes so any residual power is gone. Have your keyless remote handy and reconnect, you may have to lock/unlock a few times to prevent an alarm or the flashing lights even if you don't have an alarm.
Start her up and let her idle until warm. If the light's gone, it was just a misfire or something not very significant. If it stays on, then I'd get it scanned at Auto Zone, I think some of those stores will scan it for you for free. The code will then tell you what symptoms it has, and hopefully they can help you out.
Resetting the ECU will give you a fresh start, it will run the fuel mixture rich until it leans out as it adapts to your driving style. This might just clear the problem by itself.
You can also try a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner, get the real full stregth Techron stuff, about $5 at an auto parts store. Put it in the gas tank right before your next fill up. Then maybe try it again 1000 miles later. I do it every 15k miles, 30k max.
I hope you find this helpful. Good luck and keep us posted, please.
-juice
Donnalee
I just bought a 2005 Legacy Sedan 2.5i (and love it).....
I know that I am probably being too anal about this, but I would *love* to get rid of those safety warnings on the visors. They look ugly (yes, I know, a cosmetic issue), and I know the importance of proper distance, etc. I would have attempted a sticker-ectomy if the visors were plastic, but I am much more cautious with them being cloth. Any ideas, or should I just let this go - and cover them up with God-knows-what?
Thanks for the help!
Rich
Mine are vinyl and I was able to remove some of the stick-on ones but not the ones that are heat-bonded on to the vinyl visors in my Forester. I swear, I'd be willing to buy new visors to get rid of those eye sores.
Then again, I've had it for 8 years, you get used to it.
-juice
I had a feeling that would be the answer. You would think that they could make these more attractive if they needed to be on there! Guess I will get used to it!
Rich
Good luck getting them off.
Phil
-juice
I can just see where the labels used to be, and the cloth in that area is just a little sticky due to glue residue, but that's preferable to having the big yellow blob in my peripheral vision all the time.
It might be possible to use Goof Off to clean the residue, but I decided to leave well alone...
Tim.
You sound knowledgeable about the Subaru company. I have a 2005 L.L. Bean that has been a nightmare. From 2 power steering pumps, a battery, something going on in the suspension, erratic shifting, a rattle behind the dashboard and a rattle in the rearview mirror, stuttering acceleration, and the brakes work most of the time. Blackridge Subaru in St. George, UT has been very difficult to work with. The sales manager, Jeff, asked if we were having buyers remorse and lied to us about the Utah Lemon Law. Service has been difficult. An example: dropped the car off in the evening, the master tech took the car home, put a bunch of miled on it, when I picked it up, there was a loud sound that obviously should not be there, I went for a drive in new car and had a sales guy go for a ride in my car and he could tell that the power steering pump was out (for the second time). After the pump went out the first time, we complained about the handling repaetedly, but were told it was OK. After the second pump, they actually looked at the vehicle and found a problem with the rack in the steering. Service has had a dificult problem repeating the brake problem, but I have police officers that have driven the vehicle and found a problem. The dealership refuses to send anybody to drive the vehicle here at elevation (not necessarily the problem) where i can get the problem to repeat. I don't want to overload you with info if you are the right person to help, but I can go on for pages and pages with all of the problems we have been having with this car. We have 6000 miles on it, almost half going to and from the dealer. I have worked with the Subaru rep, and he offered an extended warranty (making us the test case) or $2000 towards new vehicle (we eat the depreciation). It is very frustrating to have a vehivle that the company will not stand behind.
If you can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.
Thank you,
Quentin
Thanks!
The biggest problem is the brakes. After sitting, break pedal is very stiff and will not compress all the way and car will not stop immediately, just rolls to a stop. Even more scary are the times that it happens at random moments while driving. Dealership can't repeat in shop and won't travel to see it happen here. I have other witnesses so I know it's not imaginary.
There is an occasional loud clink from the passenger/rear of the vehicle on left turns. I don't know if there is any connection, but they found a problem with the rack(in the rack & pinion) after the second time the power steering pump went out. This is the worst car I have ever driven in a gusty crosswind. I had a '68 Bronco for a long time and it was a dream in a crosswind compared to this Subaru.
Lately, when I start the car, the RPMs surge up and down 100-200 rpm and the vehicle will stutter on acceleration, even when warm sometimes. Even going downhill, if I try to accelerate, it will stutter and then all of the sudden surge.
There is an occasional, but very annoying rattle or vibration coming from behind the dash. I have checked everything I can, ashtrays, CD player, storage, and I can't find anything that will make it stop. The rearview mirror also rattles occasionally, never at the dealership, but I can fix that temporarily.
The dealership in ST. George, UT has not been able to find anything wrong, but they do not have a whole lot of credibility in the area. Hoping somebody has repaired a similar problem and can help.
BTW, Patti no longer works in Customer Service, hasn't for about a year now. They have yet to replace her on these boards, also.
-juice
Just this past winter, I started having this exact same problem with my brakes. It ONLY happened in the winter and usually at temperatures below -20F, so I am pretty sure it is fluid/temp dependent. At this point, my assumption is that I need to flush out the old fluid and replace but I will not know if it fixes the problem until November when the temps dive down again. You are right, though. It is very disconcerting and renders the brakes nearly inoperable. Thankfully it is highly intermittent and I can typically "push though" the problem, meaning that if I hit the brakes and this happens, I let off and then thwack the pedal again with considerable force and it'll pop free and start working normally for a while.
Anyway, if it has not been done already, maybe you should request that the fluid be flushed and replaced. I also wonder if it might be the master cylinder or power assist, but I do not know enough about the system to speculate any further there. Sorry, but good luck with it.
I'd recommend a different dealer if at all possible... the problem is that you have to drive there and that is quite a chore if the brakes do not work! It IS a problem and it is also a safety issue for not only those in your car, but those around you. With a new car like this, I would insist that it be fixed even if that required a full replacement of the brake system. Even if they never found the problem, at least you'd be able to drive a car that worked in the meantime (I hope).
Has anyone actually changed to T's and see a difference either pos or neg.
This is my wifes car and no spirited driving is done.
Please advise.
If it's speed-dependent, i.e the pitch increases with speed, it's very likely it.
Don't just look at the speed rating. What you really give up there is heat resistance. Is the wife really good about checking the tire pressures? My guess is no. And if you drive on a low tire with a lower speed rating (i.e. less heat resistance) the results could be a disaster, plus your insurance might not cover you if you use sub-standard tires in the first place.
I would strongly recommend against.
Also check the load rating (the very last number), it's OK to go higher, but not lower. You would give up payload capacity.
-juice
Here's my story: I have a 2001 outback wagon, manual transmission with about 63,000 miles. For the past 4 months the CEL has been coming on periodically at start up. The situation is almost always the same: I turn the car over in the morning, the RPMs rev high and, for a couple seconds, are sustained near 3000. Then, the light goes on and the RPMs drop. The engine then idles pretty rough for a few minutes and you can smell gas or something. I have been able to circumvent the light from going on by giving a good press on the gas pedal when you can tell things are "stuck". The light usually stays on for about 24 hours, which may correspond to the number of times i start it up, or the mileage i drive. Only twice has this occurred after being recently driven, but always at start up.
I've had it to the dealer 4 times and it's always shown the same code. The first 2 times they cleaned out the system, the 3rd time they replaced the solenoid sensor ($340), and the last time, they said the sensor wasn't fitting tight enough to create a vacuum, so they used silicone to connect it. 3 weeks later (including one week it wasn't driven at all), and the light is back on. I now have an appointment to take it in on Monday, but would really appreciate anyone's thoughts or experiences with this.
Thanks!!!
Don
I had a Whiteline adjustible rear sway bar installed on my '05 Forester a few weeks ago and now it's creaking when I go up/down inclines and around turns. I think the solution involves just greasing the bushings, so I purchased a tube of Phil wood grease.
Does the entire sway bar need to be removed in order to get at the bushings? Or can I just remove the two brackets holding the bushings to the sway bar? I don't want to damage the bushings in the process, but I'd rather not remove the wheels if I don't have to.
Thanks!
Recently purchased a Legacy 2005 GT for my wife, I now have 2K miles on it and there is an disturbingly loud squeak/grinding noise from the front right wheel. The sound is like the the brake warning indicator, but louder. (as compared to my 98 Legacy GT)
This sound doesn't happen all the time, and seems to happen after 10 mins or so of driving, and at slower driving speeds.
I had the car taken in to be checked out, they cleaned out the brake system and inspected it. The service folk explained that brake noise is par for the course for semi-metallics brake pads. I can accept that and understand noise is expected. Unfortunately this noise happens even when brake is not depressed! Somehow I don't think they heard the full extent of the noise from the roadtest they had to check it out.
Could this be brake dust or brake pad glazing!? Any Ideas?
This is an excellent car and hate having my wife get a bad impression of Subaru, especially since she hated her last car so much (cough* Mazda Protege *), and looked forward to a new car she really loves. ... Can you tell I pushed for the GT???
- Thanks
By the way, excellent choice of vehicle for the wife! Rob M.
Dad has experienced the problem since then and it has worsened. He has rereplacedhe battery which would not take a charge and the alternator seems to be only putting out something like 14 amps. If the car sits it will start back up again. We tried it again today and it also felt like the engine was missing. After running for about 20 minutes the engine shut down and there was no restarting it (right away).
The check engine light does not come on but the battery light does sometimes. When we left the lights worked as did the windows (slowly) but the engine would not begin to turn over. The gauges dropped. the clock remained on time for a while but finally reset itself and the external thermometer stopped displaying in concert with the gauges. Does this cluster of symptoms indicate a logical issue? It seems like an odd cluster of symptoms to me but I don't know the system. Can you give me any insight into this?
tlehmann
My suspicion is that the problem lies with the alternator or its connection. The original battery could have been bad if receiving a weak charge for an extended period, but this new battery should not be the culprit. One easy way to find out if the alternator is weak is to let the car idle with the low beams, fog lamps, and radio on. If I did this, the car would be dead within 30 minutes..... my alternator was pretty well shot though! Oh, and have a battery, automobile, or charger handy to get the car running again.
186K and counting......
-juice
I have an '05 Impreza RS Wagon with 15K miles and just experienced what you experienced---a check engine light with a flashing Cruise light. I have it scheduled with a local dealer tonight. This is the first problem I've encountered so far and it's really disheartening to have it happen so soon in my ownership. I'll send another post if their solution seems to be a permanent one...
E
It looks like a half inch or larger drive ratchet size. All I have is 3/8ths drive....
And where can I buy one (other than Subaru) if a special tool is needed...?
solo
-juice
I'll see if I can borrow a bigger drive ratchet from a neighbor before I go shopping for a new one.......I have too many other tools around from the GM and Ford ownership days that are turning into clutter...
solo
Hope it's nothing major.
Jim
Much appreciated.
beth
I've had a problem arise last night as I left work. My alarm will chirp 3 times, accompanied with the door locks locking after each chirp, while the car is running or the key is in the start position. The alarm will do this intermittently all the while the key is on. I disconnected the battery, and left it disconnected overnight. I re-connected it this morning, with no luck. I then thought maybe it was the remote, so I removed the battery from the remote...still no luck. I've even tried re-programming the remote using the reset button under the dash, with no luck. I've tried putting the alarm in valet mode before starting it, with no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as it is quite annoying for the alarm to chirp at me while I'm driving to and from work...
Thanks
Call 1-800-subaru3 to find out about the exact terms and conditions on the warranty extension on the head gaskets.
Steve
On the auto tranny - did you ever flush the ATF? If not I doubt they'll do anything to help, it should have been serviced by 60k at the latest.
If you did the service, find the receipts and ask the CR rep at the 800# if they can help out in any way, maybe split the cost.
-juice
Subaru defines piston slap as within tolerable limits if it goes away within 15 minutes. I get varying degrees of 'knock like' sounds on a cold start ranging from 'loud injectors' during the summer, to 'downright scary - run for cover!' in sub zero conditions. But once warm, the sound level approaches 'pretty quiet for a Subaru'. It will never sound 'sewing machine smooth' like one of my previous Toyota's or my Honda V6, but it sounds kind of sporty in it's own right.
Steve
I did call Subaru and found out that since I had done the required recall filling with the coolant immediately (june), I am covered and should have been told so by the dealerrship. I faxed my papers to Subaru and I am waiting to see what happens next. On the transmission front, the trans is being flushed as we speak. The tech told me I need to drive it now and see if the problem re-0ccurs, then they will look at the trans further. does this make sense? He said b/c I don't have a check engine light on, this is the best they can do.
Beth